Woman complains about treatment by police

Monday

Jun 17, 2013 at 10:30 AMJun 17, 2013 at 10:32 AM

A Doolittle woman this past week shared her concerns with Doolittle Police Chief Scott Jones and the Doolittle Board of Aldermen regarding how she was allegedly treated by a Doolittle police officer in May.

Paul Hackbarth

A Doolittle woman this past week shared her concerns with Doolittle Police Chief Scott Jones and the Doolittle Board of Aldermen regarding how she was allegedly treated by a Doolittle police officer in May.

Debra Dowdy, along with Scott Dowdy, attended the June 10 aldermen meeting to talk about the incident, which is being investigated by Jones. Mayor Paul Smith said the investigation would involve reviewing videos and other evidence.

Debra told the board and Jones that the night of May 19, she was coming home from work on Interstate 44 and saw a Doolittle patrol car’s flashing lights behind her.

She said she pulled over at the Doolittle exit off the interstate and the Doolittle police officer got out of his vehicle and allegedly yelled at her the entire time he was there.

“He said that he radared me at 82 mph,” Debra said, noting that she usually sets the cruise control to 68 or 70 mph when driving on the interstate. She added that it was raining that night, too.According to Debra, the officer allegedly said, “I’m just going to arrest you.” When she asked the officer why, noting that she already had received a ticket for speeding, she claimed the officer said the reason she would be arrested was for the light over her license plate being out.

“He was very rude and obnoxious to me. I have never ever been talked by a law enforcement agency person like that before,” Debra said at the meeting.

Jones said without hearing the officer’s side of the story, he couldn’t say much other than “I have absolute zero tolerance for people being rude. I preach all the time not to be rude.”

Mayor Paul Smith said, “I personally talk with our officers and insist that they not be rude. You may have to arrest someone, but you don’t have to be rude.”

After Debra finished telling her account of the incident, she, Scott and the police chief left the meeting area to talk in private.

It was recommended that Jones give a report about the incident to the board at its July meeting.